Monday

Feb 18, 2019 at 10:39 AM

A student-drawn poster of former NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick hung inside Abby Kelley Foster Charter Public School in Worcester was allegedly removed after a school official took issue with it on Friday. Now, the administration is facing charges of racial insensitivity from students.

According to students, the poster featuring the controversial former San Francisco 49ers quarterback was hung around the school with posters of other African-American leaders as part of a Black History Month tribute. The poster was hand drawn by an Abby Kelley student, and students taped pictures of people who suffered fatal police brutality, like Tamir Rice and Michael Brown, around the poster.

According to one student, an assistant principal, Robert Kerr, approached him about the Kaepernick poster. The student, William Gitau, said Kerr told him the poster offended him because he had police officers in the family. After a 10-minute conversation about what Kaepernick’s protest represented, Kerr offered the poster could only stay up if one honoring police went up next to it, according to Gitau. The students instead opted to take it down, and have made plans to meet with the administration next week about putting it back up.

“I said the poster is supposed to represent those who died from police brutality,” said Gitau, a senior and member of the student council. “That’s the whole reason Colin Kaepernick decided to kneel.”

Kerr could not immediately be reached for comment. In a statement, Brian Haas, executive director of the Abby Kelley Public Charter School said the moment is a teachable one for everyone involved. The students and administration will meet after break, he said, to talk and understand each other's perspective.

"Abby Kelley Foster Charter Public School strives to create a culture of inclusion and mutual understanding. Our mission is to ensure that students of all backgrounds have an equal shot at a high quality education to put them on the path to college and success," he said. "We understand the sensitivity around the issues former NFL Quarterback Colin Kaepernick has raised with his protest ... We intend to address this in a way that all members of our community can learn from each other.

Cassiroyal Osei Poku, a senior student council member who was involved in making the poster, said she wants to see it put back on the wall.

“I would love for the poster to come up,” Osei Poku said. “I think the cause and the message behind it is even bigger than anything.”

The poster was part of a broader campaign to accurately depict black history in the school, she said, without glossing over the pain, suffering and struggle of African Americans.

"I wanted to show the reality of what Black History Month is," she said.

Osei Poku was with Gitau when the pair were confronted by Kerr about the poster, and said the exchange left her feeling defeated. Weeks of work went into the poster and the overall Black History Month display.

“It had me very silent and quiet,” she said. “He saw the poster as a sign of disrespect, saying all police officers were bad, but that’s not what we’re saying.”

Naleigha Evans, student and vice president of the student council, said the exchange demonstrated a lack of understanding of and respect for black history.

“These administrators suggested that we posted a picture thanking police for doing their job during Black History Month instead of recognizing people who suffered and tried to stand against the system that is oppressing us. We are a predominantly black high school and we refuse to be ignored or have our people’s voices be disregarded,” said Evans.

Evans was among the many students and parents taking to social media over the weekend. An image of the poster was put on Twitter.

Abby Kelley , a school full of BLACK students refuses to allow us to recognize Kapernick and all the people effected by police brutality because the admin have police in their family and they take offense to police brutality.....RIDICULOUS

— naleigha evans (@naleigha2) February 16, 2019

Some said the incident points to a lack of diversity in the school’s administration.

this is why having an all white administration is bad. they will never understand oppression like their student body does. abby kelley needs to stop claiming OUR diversity for their own benefit if they aren’t going to actively support the communities that go to their school.